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A PUBLIC LETTER FROM THE STATE OF 

CONNECTICUT TO THE CHILDREN 

IN HER SCHOOLS 




Tercentenary Anniversary of the Landing of the 
Pilgrims on Plymouth Bock 

1620—1920 

The State of Connecticut covers a part of what, for 
some years before 1620, had been known as New Eng- 
land. The name "Pilgrims" is given to a company of 
Englishmen who had been political refugees in Ley den, 
Holland, but in that year left Europe for America. 
Most of them came here mainly to secure liberty to 
worship God in their own way. The ship that brought 
them was named the Mayflower. Before they landed 
they signed a paper, called the "Mayflower compact." 
In it they agreed to constitute themselves a Colony, and 
to enact from time to time such just and equal laws as 
should be thought most for the general good. 

This was the first government in the history of man- 



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kind avowedly founded on the i)i'inciple that all 
governments derive their just powers from the consent 
of the governed, — a truth long afterwards stated, July 
4, 1776, in the Declaration of Independence of the 
United States. 

The Pilgrims landed on December 21, 1620. It was 
on a rocky shore in what is now known as Plymouth, 
JMassachusetts. The season was the dead of winter. 
The country was owned by England and they were all 
Englishmen. It was inhabited only by a fcAV red 
Indians, who sold them, from time to time, their title to 
the possession of the land along the shore. 

The Pilgrims set up such a government as was 
described in the Mayflower compact, and named it the 
New Plymouth Colony. They elected a Governor from 
among themselves and also assistants for him. 

In England they had been called "Separatists," 
because they had separated themselves from the estab- 
lished church, and chose their own ministers. Only 
church members could vote at Colony elections. 

In Connecticut, which also was another English 
colony, founded a few years later, church membership 
was not required as a condition of the right to vote. 

Both colonies had town meetings, every year, of all 
entitled to vote, as electors, at which rules were made 
to promote good order. But Connecticut differed 
from Plymouth in having a full written Constitution, to 
which any such rules must conform. 

This Constitution was framed and adopted in 1639, 
at a meeting of the settlers held at Hartford. It was 
the first written document in human histor}^ of that 
nature, setting up a new government and providing in 
detail certain "fundamental orders" as to the mode of 
conducting it. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Before 1643 there had come to be four English 
colonies in New England. These were called the New 
Plymouth Colony, the Massachusetts Bay Colon^^ the 
Connecticut Colony and the New Haven Colony. In 
1643, they all joined in creating a confederation, under 
the name of the "United Colonies of New England." 
This lasted until 1664. 

What, now, does the Landing of the Pilgrims in 1620 
mean to us in Connecticut? 

The founders of States have a place by themselves. 
They make history. They create a new and great 
political institution. They step forward into a place 
before untrodden. They set a precedent for similar 
action in constituting other governments. 

The Pilgrims of Plymouth were, in effect, the 
founders of New England. When we set up a new 
government in Connecticut we looked to Plymouth for 
our warrant to set one up by virtue of a social compact, 
made by those whom it was to govern. Under such a 
compact the Plymouth settlers had lived for nineteen 
years. The Connecticut settlers had the benefit of this 
experiment of the Pilgrims. But the Pilgrims had put 
into their compact a statement that they were "loyal 
subjects" of the King of England. In our Constitu- 
tion of 1639 there is nothing of this sort. The Connect- 
icut settlers spoke for themselves only, in voting to 
establish by and for themselves and their successors 
"one Public State or Commonwealth." 

The Pilgrims ran great risks, and submitted to great 
hardships in founding their Colony. It took them 
more than two months to make the voyage across the 
Atlantic. Half of them died within the next three 
months for want of proper food and shelter. They 



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014 069 239 
kiiew what dangers they had to encounter, but they 

laiew also, as recorded by their Governor, William 
Bradford, in his history of their doings, "that all great 
and honorable actions are accompanied with great diffi- 
culties ; and must be both enterprised and overcome with 
answerable courages." 

This was the spirit in which the Pilgrims undertook 
their task. This was the spirit they hoped to infuse 
into their successors on the soil of New England. This 
was the spirit in which they came to plant free institu- 
tions in what was then almost as much a New World as 
when Columbus made his landfall in 1492. This was 
the spirit in admiration of which we are to celebrate this 
year the three hundredth anniversary of the Landing 
of the Pilgrims. 

The State of Connecticut, 
By Marcus H. Holcomb, 

Governor. 



